from Hacker News

At age of twenty eight, I have been diagnosed with social phobia. Until then, I've been doing quite well. I have worked as Unix sysadmin for several years during my twenties and eventually started to work as DB developer later on (Oracle). Now I'm thirty, lost the last job due to my illness and general inability to handle open-space hell and the real-life communication. It's generally very hard for me now to go outside and do the normal things that people usually do, unless I drug myself with benzodiazepines.

Not able to withstand the idleness, I've been eyeing some remote jobs. Although I have basically zero experience with remote work (minus the occasional home-office in the past), but I've decided to at least try something. Several people advised me to not try "IT" job again, as they identify my previous jobs to be the causes of my mental problems. That would mean throwing 10+ years of experience into trash can. I don't consider that to be a rational choice.

Some online research and browsing brought up some question:

1) My field of experience. It seems that most Oracle DB jobs are on-site jobs and usually limited to larger companies (logically). I came to a conclusion, that are barely any sensible remote jobs in that field. Second alternative would be Unix administration, but again, most of these jobs are US-centric and being from Europe, this seems like a poor choice. Should I try and pick up some new technology ?

2) How "remote" these jobs usually are ? Using skype or phone is rather impossible for me (jaw tremor, trembling, etc.). I can live with using email or some project management software to get job assignments, but that's pretty much it.

3) Was someone in similar situation ? How did you handle it ?

I will be grateful for any useful input.

Thank you.